Choosing to become a parent is not for the faint of heart and the experience isn’t for everyone. While some people are happy child-free, others become more open to the idea of parenthood with time, maturity, or life circumstances. These famous figures found themselves in the latter scenario, long after doubting they would be suited for parenthood or swearing that they would never procreate.
We’re talking about ex-bachelor George Clooney who never imagined himself happily married with kids (twins!) until he met his wife Amal. Before welcoming his son Eric in 214, American Idol judge Simon Cowell had previously remarked, “I’d go nuts” if he had to deal with overly energetic children, and New Girl star Zooey Deschanel, now a mother-of-two, once declared that having kids was “never an ambition.”
Well, times have changed for these Hollywood stars. It’s true that more people these days have decided to not have any (or any more) children, according to November data from the Pew Research Center (many claim climate, financial, and medical concerns are reasons). However, a handful of celebrities surprised themselves with the realization that they were, in fact, destined to be parents. Some wanted to find the right partner before welcoming kids (and who can blame Eva Mendes for that?) while a few feared the life-long commitment of children or didn’t feel any sort of parental instinct.
Now moms and dads, these celebrities are the best version of themselves and we are enjoying watching them (and their adorable children) from afar. Read to learn why these celebrities are grateful they changed their minds about becoming parents.
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Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz is now a mom to her almost two-year-old daughter Raddix, whom she shares with husband Benji Madden, but she didn’t always feel maternal. In 2014, the actress told Esquire that she wasn’t sure she was ready for the challenges of parenthood. “To have lives besides your own that you are responsible for — I didn’t take that on,” she told the outlet. “That did make things easier for me. A baby — that’s all day, every day for eighteen years.”
However, Diaz is grateful that she became a mom, as she once explained on Naomi Campbell’s Youtube show, No Filter. “Even with all of the amazing experiences I’ve had in traveling and accomplishments of working hard and putting things into the world I’m proud of … I know, this is really the most gratifying time in my life, to be in this place, to get here,” said Diaz. “Having a family when you’re young … it’s like anything when you’re young: You do it. But when you’re my age and you decide to do it, it’s a real choice. You really have to work hard for it.”
George Clooney
Before meeting his now-wife Amal, George Clooney was a lifelong bachelor, famously shrugging off the notion of marriage and babies. As he told People in 2006, “I think it’s the most responsible thing you can do, to have kids. It’s not something to be taken lightly. I don’t have that gene that people have to replicate. But everything in my life has changed over time.”
Indeed, the actor’s feelings about fatherhood did change, and in 2017 George and Amal welcomed twins named Ella and Alexander. The actor’s birth announcement was hilarious, to say the least. “Ella, Alexander, and Amal are all healthy, happy, and doing fine,” it read. “George is sedated and should recover in a few days.”
Eva Mendes
Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling share daughters Esmeralda, 7, and Amada, 5, but the actress wasn’t always sure that she wanted kids — that is, until meeting Gosling. “I was lucky enough to work my bum off for 20 years,” she once told Australian radio show Fitzy & Wippa. “I never wanted babies before until I fell in love with Ryan, and it kind of worked out to where I was 40 and having my first baby. I think I was 42 for the second one, so it worked out in that way that I had a career and then I change my focus to my family.”
Simon Cowell
Back in 2009, American Idol judge Somon Cowell was adamant about never having kids. “God, no. I couldn’t have children,” he reportedly said. “If I had them here drawing on the walls, I’d go nuts.”
However, in 2014 Cowell became a father to a boy named Eric whom he shares with partner Lauren Silverman. “It’s been brilliant,” Cowell told The Kelly Clarkson Show of fatherhood. “I never thought I would do something like this.”
Angelina Jolie
“It’s strange, I never wanted to have a baby. I never wanted to be pregnant. I never babysat. I never thought of myself as a mother,” Angelina Jolie told the Associated Press in 2016.
Jolie and Brad Pitt share six adopted and biological children: Maddox, 20, Pax, 18, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 15, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 13. And while the actress admits that she’s far from the “perfect parent” she calls her kids, “The best friends I ever had.”
Zooey Deschanel
In 2012, New Girl star Zooey Deschanel told Marie Claire that having kids was never her focus. “My sister was always very motherly, baby-sitting and stuff,” she said of her sibling, actress Emily Deschanel. “I like kids, and I like being around kids – but it was never an ambition.”
Zooey and her ex-husband Jacob Pechenik share two kids, daughter Elsie and son Charlie, born in 2015 and 2017, respectively.
Zooey once told Us Weekly that parenting is “really fun” adding, “You’re always adjusting because kids go through phases and the phases kind of turnover so quickly that when you introduce a new baby into the mix it’s even better. Because what’s better than more kids? They are so cute.”
Amy Schumer
In 2018, comedian Amy Schumer joked to Ellen DeGeneres, “I have never wanted kids. And then I saw myself as a baby on your show and I thought, ‘Who am I to deprive the world of such a beautiful baby?’”
However, after marrying chef Chris Fischer, the couple welcomed their son Gene, now two. And they’re trying for baby number two. “Oh God, I hope so,” Schumer said during a later appearance on the talk show when asked whether Gene would have a sibling. “We’re trying to figure it out. I mean, you know, it’s like there’s nothing better….”
Diane Kruger
Actress Diane Kruger once considered herself too “selfish” to have kids before welcoming her first child in 2018 with fiancé and Walking Dead star Norman Reedus. “I didn’t think I wanted children for a long time. I was too selfish,” she told the PORTER Edit. “But by the time I got to about 35, I thought, yes, I probably do want one. But then you have to wait for the right person to come along. I’m glad I waited.”
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